She Hid Her Lover In The Attic For Years…Then This Happened

When you’re having an affair, your main goal is to not get caught. Most people achieve this by sneaking around and making up lies. However, in the early 1900s, Walburga “Dolly” Oesterreich embarked on an extramarital affair and chose to hide her lover from her husband in the most bizarre way…

Oesterreich was a German immigrant living in Milwaukee when she met 17-year-old sewing machine repairman Otto Sanhuber. Sanhuber had worked in her husband’s garment factory, which is how she met him.

The two soon began a passionate affair that would go on for almost 10 years. Sanhuber would come by her house during the day while Oesterreich’s husband was out. However, this arrangement soon proved problematic when the neighbors began to talk about Oesterreich’s faithfulness.

In 1918 when the Oesterreichs moved to Los Angeles, Sanhuber came too. Dolly sent him to their home a few days ahead of time so he could set up in the attic.

This odd arrangement worked well until the night of August 22, 1922.

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On that night, Sanhuber heard Dolly and her husband fighting violently downstairs. Fearing for his lover’s life, Sanhuber charged downstairs with two pistols. In the ensuing struggle, Dolly’s husband was shot and killed. Dolly and Sanhuber then staged the scene to make it look like a botched robbery.

Sanhuber then fled to Canada and evaded prosecution for his role in the murder until 1930, but he served almost no time because the statute of limitations had run out.

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Dolly was also prosecuted, but her trial ended in a hung jury with most members voting for acquittal. She remained in Los Angeles, eventually remarried, and died in 1961.